With property crime rates rising, Rancho Palos Verdes officials will weigh a proposal to install surveillance cameras at major thoroughfare entrances to the city.

The effectiveness and costs of the proposal, put forth by Mayor Susan Brooks at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, will be reviewed by staff and brought back to the council for a vote probably sometime early next year. The Lomita sheriff’s station, which provides law enforcement services for the city, also will be asked to provide input.

“Our goal here is prevention and deterrence,” Brooks said in an interview Wednesday. “Right now we’re just looking at the concept. If we could get buy-in from the other (Palos Verdes) Peninsula cities, that would be great.”

Surveillance cameras have been gaining acceptance in several California communities. Cameras have been installed along a 7-mile stretch of Avalon Boulevard in Carson in an effort to catch fleeing suspects and a network of 400 private and public cameras have been installed throughout the city of Long Beach. Compton, Lynwood and Los Angeles also use police video programs. Hermosa Beach also is eyeing cameras for its downtown Pier Plaza.

Rancho Palos Verdes already has use of mobile cameras in sheriff’s patrol cars that have yielded benefits, said Deputy City Manager Carolynn Petru.

She said the suspect in a triple homicide committed in Hollywood a few years ago was apprehended when a camera got a hit on the stolen license plate in the case as it passed into Rancho Palos Verdes along Western Avenue.

Brooks said the idea for the proposal came out of her informal monthly meetings with residents who expressed concerns about recent upticks in crimes such as auto theft, vehicle burglary and residential burglaries.

(Crime on The Hill, however, is relative. Just this week, SafeWise Security Systems ranked Rancho Palos Verdes No. 21 in its “50 Safest Cities in California” compilation. The list was developed by analyzing FBI crime data and the company’s own research for cities with 20,000 residents or more.)

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Affixed to public poles, the stationary cameras can pick up license plate numbers on cars matching descriptions of suspects as they enter or leave the city.

While Neighborhood Watch and homeowners groups do a good job of keeping residents informed, Brooks said, the cameras would provide an added help to law enforcement.

The system would serve as a deterrent, Brooks said, alerting criminals that they’ll likely “get caught” if they commit crimes in Rancho Palos Verdes.

The systems, however, are criticized for their invasion of privacy. The American Civil Liberties Union has been a main opponent of the systems, saying they do more harm that good by stripping residents of their privacy.

Responding to the concerns about the cameras bringing “Big Brother” to city streets, Brooks said the systems record without sound on a continuous loop that is later destroyed and not kept in storage.

“It’s not maintained in a system,” Brooks said. “It loops in and out; it’s not something that’s downloaded.”